Healthy life expectancy in England and Wales: recent evidence

By Andrew Bebbington and Robin Darton

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this report is to describe recent evidence based on the 1994 General Household Survey (GHS) and the 1995 (First Quarter) Omnibus Survey, concerning healthy life expectancy in England and Wales. These findings extend some of the analysis described in Healthy Life Expectancy and Its Uses (Bone et al., 1995), and provide further evidence of trends in disability.\ud
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<p><p><p>The remainder of this section describes the background to this research. Section 2 outlines the method of measuring health<p><p>expectancies. \ud
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<p><p><p>Section 3 analyses 1994 GHS in a manner comparable with estimates using past rounds of the GHS, in order to project forward trends in healthy life expectancy. This uses firstly the limiting longstanding illness question and secondly, for elderly people, activities of daily living. (It had been hoped to include estimates by social class, but mortality rates by social class are not yet available from OPCS.) \ud
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<p><p><p>Section 4 uses 1995 Omnibus Survey data to demonstrate the comparison of healthy life expectancy using the limiting<p><p>longstanding illness question, and quality adjusted life years using the Euroqual scale. A regional analysis is included. \ud
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<p><p><p>There are three appendices. Appendix A comments on the relevance of the questions being used in the General Household<p><p>Survey, to issues concerning resource use and financing of community care. Appendix B examines evidence from the<p><p>Longitudinal Survey about the health of rnigrants, and comments on the effect of migration on estimates of the healthiness of local populations in England & Wales. Appendix C describes the methods used to approximate disability in communal establishments in order to obtain estimates of healthy life expectancy from the GHS and Omnibus Surveys